Thursday, August 31, 2017

We teachers cannot
separate nor split being a teacher and being concerned about each and every
student of ours.

More than being worried about them, any of them I mean, we
should be concerned, and we can think how we can alleviate our students’
sorrows and concerns, and share their joys as well.

They expect that from us,
up to some extent. Although they may be troublesome sometimes or even often.

Now I’m remembering a teacher I had at my secondary school. I was fourteen, and
one day I was kind of worried, serious or a bit sad in the classroom. I was
holding my head between my hands. And that teacher, Mr. Miguel Ponce, a nice
priest, asked me, at the beginning of one class whether I was fine or not. And
I answered something not very polite or elegant anyway.

After some time I
realized he had been nice with me and not me toward him. I had replied as a
teen that doesn’t like to be asked by an adult. It was a nice thing by him – I
don’t know what is about him, or even if he has departed. All a gentleman of
him. / Photo from: HireRush Com. That picture fits here.

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Oh, you know, I’m
not sure at all but quite many people now bet that the flipped-classroom model is
okay for learning.

You may know about it. The students would firstly read from
the Internet about some topic they have to learn about, and they’d do so at
home, and also they would kind of visualize the topic also at home, as I said,
or in libraries.

And in the classroom they with their teacher and their
classmates would gently discuss about their findings.

Some people state that
it’s a revolutionary way of learning and it’s great, in few words. But I put a
question: is it not okay first for the teacher to say something about the topic
or topics before the kids seek and search for stuff about those issues?

Anyway
their teacher could help his students look for valid material, this is, he
would help focus the topic or topics, because on the Web there’s plenty – actually
too much about this or that theme, is that right? I think the teacher should
assist in some way the searching by the students at home or in libraries. /
Photo from: YouTube

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Our dear students have
to create and make up their communicative competences in the target language,
okay. And the chance they have is in the classroom proper, right?

Sometimes we
talk about either a second or a foreign language, but English in Spain is
somehow a second language, because so many things are in that tongue in real
life. So English might not be a foreign language anymore, but a second one,
with a qualified certainty. In Spain now you can hear more and more English on
the streets. Or at least in some cities, like Granada, the so much touristic Granada.

Coming back to the classroom I can tell you that with my adult
students my experience is that you can have that special atmosphere in the
classroom all the time, also before and after the English lesson, because all
or some of my students ask me questions in English when I just entered the
classroom, which curiously is a library.

Summing up I can assure you my
students are developing nice communicative competences or skills. We focus on
communication and merely sometimes on correct and neat grammar.

The important
point is communicating in English, this is, producing messages that are
interpreted by me their teacher and by their classmates. Summing up again it’s
worth to create that atmosphere in the classroom, where English is the language
amid us. They associate me with English, and thus they address me in English! /
Photo from: Zastavski com. For today I chose a nice picture as an illustration. Sunday is for God and for relaxing, and riding a horse is okay with that week day.

Saturday, August 26, 2017

So we have that we
second or foreign language teachers have to train our dear students to
communicate in that target language, English for example.

Great Rebecca Oxford
(1990) offers some learning strategies that are useful for communication, both
by speaking and by writing – also by listening and by reading. For example:
switching to the mother tongue; getting help; using mime or gesture; adjusting
or approximating the message; coining words; using a circumlocution or synonym…

If we think of them they’re great for communication in English or any other
language!

The point for us teachers is creating a nice atmosphere in the
classroom where English is precisely the vehicle language for understanding
among ourselves!

And here we’re referring to the grand language-learning-and-acquiring
approach which is the communicative approach. Here we have to also consider the
“Importance [which] is given to learners’ personal experiences and situations,
which are considered as an invaluable contribution to the content of the
lessons.” These latter words were taken from a website on the communicative approach:http://blog.tjtaylor.net/method-communicative/

And so we could speak about the students’
learning and learning strategies in the classroom, maybe in English, if
possible. / Photo from: Voyager 1 Gobierno de Canarias. I posted that picture
of Voyager 1 because it still COMMUNICATES with us people on earth, after 40
years after its launching!

Friday, August 25, 2017

The new school year is
about to start, right? And we teachers will get so committed with our students
and our classes.

We will try our students would make good use of the class time.
But is it sensible to assign homework, or otherwise it is okay with the school lessons
and that’s it? How much homework should we teachers assign?

I would tell you that
homework is necessary, just necessary. For example if we are second or foreign
language teachers, our students need extra time at home when they’re easy and
relaxed to re-read texts we have worked out at school. When our students are
relaxed at home – hopefully they’re so! – they should dedicate some time for
re-reading, doing some drill exercise, some more fiction writing or non-fiction
essays, focusing on some grammar point and practicing by using it in meaningful
contexts…

So the answer is a qualified YES, they should have SOME homework.

However let’s consider that those students of ours have other school subjects –
math, science, history, chemistry, philosophy… - and they should have enough
time for those other subjects: let’s not assign too much homework.

I was
thinking of our case, second or foreign language teachers: our students do need
time at home to study, to reinforce their communicative competences by using
the language for creative writing and enjoying it, by interacting with us their
teachers through online computer writing, etc. / Photo from: Castillo de Santa
Barbara Ayuntamiento de Alicante. I posted that pic because it might be
inspiring for writing fiction compositions.

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

The committed
teacher! The committed teacher will for sure dedicate some time – which may be not paid anyway! – to
think of some basic general points about the school year that is about to
start.

It depends on the teacher but some of them are used to thinking about
that new school year afresh, starting from some general points toward something
more punctual. And when thinking in general, he will think: What can I expect
from my new students, or from the students I had last year? Or also: What main
aims should I have before the new school year?

And he’ll think of one or two general
goals. And he will also dream high about his doing and what his students are
going to do. And he can think of these points while strolling along a park or
the countryside or wherever, or when right opposite his computer, before
planning that school year.

What I mean is that before the actual planning he
should ask himself what he has to do and what his students have to do, at the view
or sight, an overall sight, from his experience last year. What was fine? What
do I have to do to improve such and such things that went odd or bad?

Let’s
shed a fresh light on my professional work. And that certainly means he’s a
very professional teacher, on whom the school can rely! / Photo from: Indiana
University of Pennsylvania

Monday, August 21, 2017

Our students should get
some communicative competence, I said on last post. Some communicative
competence in the second or foreign language, I referred to.

Communication in
the target language should be predominant in the classroom. I bet we teachers
should foster that communication, even when giving announcements in the target
language, announcements about school logistics and other school stuff.

The
point is creating an atmosphere where English (our target tongue) is the
vehicle language for dealing with all in the classroom. Even grammar points
could be presented by the teacher or by the students in English, making sure
those students can understand well! And for that we have to use clear and properly
vocalized language.

Also we will illustrate the grammar point with sentences
the students can understand. So let’s hinder the temptation of using the mother
tongue. Even we could elicit example sentences from the students, as they’re
understanding the grammar point which is being presented.

All this I’m saying
may be demanding, but we’re creating the humus or soil where our students can
learn and acquire English and therefore grow their “target language plant”. They
can acquire English even if they’re adults. But for that we should output and convey
massive speech in English!

Try and carry out all this to find out if it works! Mostly our students are great! /
Photo from: XciteFun net. The picture may be showing something about conveying
messages, as those kids look they’re kind of shouting messages.

Friday, August 18, 2017

We second or
foreign language teachers should promote and train our students to gain a
communicative competence in that language. We do not confine our teaching to
language facts. No, we train our dear students for a communicative competence.

That said, focus on providing a massive output from you, for your students to
have and receive a massive input and intake. If no input and intake, no
language. And for that I advise you to teach at the communicative approach:
communication, communication, communication.

Not many language facts but communication
in the classroom. So immersion will be fine for our students.

Please pray for
us Spanish people, for yesterday August 17 we suffered a big terror attack in
Barcelona. Thank you! / Photo from: history-teacher All Education School

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Welcome if dropping by
my blog. I was thinking that we teachers should be very human and humane with
our students, maybe now and always, maybe right now that we are about to start
a new school year. But always we have to be that way.

Our students do need us.

And we have to be very attentive to what they wish to tell us, even by jotting
down some notes, at tutoring sessions and everywhere. Also we can help them all with our affection, care, sense of
humor, joy.

As I’m Christian also sometimes I try and give someone some
spiritual and supernatural advice – I try and give them Jesus Christ, loving
Jesus Christ.

We can offer them our being near them, our affection and
attention, like I said. Alike our prayer and understanding them. Soon I’ll try
to write about gaining a communicative competence by our students, in the
second or foreign language we teach.

Oh, also I would add that if we're attentive to our dear students we'll eventually gain prestige and authority before them. / Photo from: sailing courses in dublin
www inss ie. The picture is a beautiful illustration.

Monday, August 14, 2017

Some days ago I wrote:
“Even in a hostile atmosphere you can gain authority. By working with
commitment, dedication, affection, and benevolence love.”

I wrote that for
posting today. And I guess it is true. Think of it. I’m thinking of my
colleagues in secondary schools or Spanish “institutos”, where often it is not
simple to teach. You have to gain your students to your side by affection,
commitment, dedication and love of benevolence.

Also I’m thinking of a movie
where a rookie young female teacher gained her students in a high school by
putting in her students’ shoes by making them write diaries about their lives, sorrows
and pains... and joys alike! She learned about her students in that way. She could
think in her lesson plans by putting in her students’ shoes. / Photo from: read-a-book-day-fun
Time and Date

Friday, August 11, 2017

How to manage a large
classroom? I was thinking of the summer camp I helped out at, last July. One
day one teacher had a session with more than thirty teens. He had to set them
working in teams! He achieved to rope all the boys in the class. He leant on a
PowerPoint presentation. He addressed each kid in some way.

The most important
point was that he had moral authority: those kids respected and loved him. He treated
the boys with interest, affection, gravity, respect, formality. He had
something special, ordinary though, at the same time.

He is an experienced
teacher, and experience makes the difference. Also I would dare say that he was
honorable, honest and upright, and he has devoted his professional life to
teaching teens. It’s something you notice soon, pretty soon. Up to some extent the
students could “smell” he’s a committed professional. And I’ve seen this in
other teachers too. / Photo from: Animalia Life. The picture is just a nice illustration.

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Some useful and
interesting points for today. I know about a man that used to say that the more
you study something the more you like it! And that’s something we can explain
to our students. The more you learn about something the more you’ll be
interested on it.

He had chosen the degree of Medicine, kind of by chance.
However he had applied all his energies to studying that degree and really he
became a prestigious doctor in Spain, Eduardo Ortiz de Landázuri. He died in
1985.

He also said – he as well became a college professor – that being a kind-hearted
and good-natured teacher was not against being a teacher that could achieve to
lead a class of students. Kindness was not against classroom-management and
discipline.

Alike I know a teacher that even smiles often to his students, and
his students have a big respect toward him! He has kind of some charisma, yet
he’s normal. / Photo from: Today I Found Out. The picture is just an
illustration.

Monday, August 7, 2017

I was thinking of the
English summer camp I arrived from some days ago. Oh, it’s been so great. We’ve
had fun and also the kids have learned so much English and practiced listening,
speaking, reading and writing. Great.

Also they’ve learned and practiced other
competences or skills, like working in teams, speaking in public, debating and
discussing… Even they’ve learned to make their beds in the morning. And all of
them were nice, in spite of a few punctual behavior problems. When you treated
the boys aside, they reacted in a nice way.

At the cafeteria or canteen as well
they’ve learned to eat their meals nice. I was also thinking that these boys
are our future citizens, the ones that will lead our lives.

Some also nice
anecdote was that we visited Gibraltar, which is a nice piece of the UK at the
south cape of Spain. Even they’ve learned to treat God as a You, as a person,
as a dad, with a limitless love like many dads and moms together.

What may they
be doing now? Their families also have noticed the nice change in those kids.
They’re better sons. And we teachers and monitors have also learned quite much
from them. Last but not least they’ve approached levels B1, B2, C1… each kid
the level he needs to pass. Remember that B1 and 2 are intermediate and C1 is
advanced. / Photo from: campusa ie. That picture is not of our summer camp

Friday, August 4, 2017

We teachers have
to educate our dear students for life, right? For life now and for their future
lives, as citizens, parents… adults.

And something they must learn now is to
work as a team. The next activity can be carried out by small teams in the classroom
– three members I’d say – or the class as a whole, if this one is not too
large. They have to choose four objects they would take to survive in Terranova
in winter for six weeks.

They give from the best they have when working in
teams. This is an activity we carried out in the summer course I’ve been with
boys from Eastern Andalusia, south of Spain, at Costa del Sol. / Photo from:
Earth Times